[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER ZERO-ONE EPISODE 27 - “I WILL NOT GIVE UP ON LIFE”



My favorite thing about this series is how it demonstrates the heroism of re-examining biases.

It’s an all the time thing in TV shows, really. Folks are against Topic A, they go through a series of adventures/difficulties, and then they begin to understand the value of Topic A. Societal harmony is only a few commercial breaks away, usually. But: real life, you know? Admitting mistakes or walking back from stated beliefs… you’d have an easier time doing a real-life Rider Kick. Most people don’t want to change, and don’t care to do the hard work of understanding other people.

What’s nice about this show is that, even with the fortnightly happy ending of humans and Humagears finding common ground, it never feels obligatory. When you get a scene like Homura declaring that 119 was a real firefighter, and that the credit for the victory should go to Hiden, there’s a genuine feeling of catharsis to that. This show somehow manages to make these lessons in judging people by their actions into something almost profound, and a pleasant surprise. The recurring character beats of folks slowly realizing that they’ve misjudged an entire species, or failed to see the ways in which their desires overlap, I never get bored of them. I love them more than a hundred finishing moves. Shit, someone going I Was A Bigot And I Can See That Now is my favorite finishing move in all of Kamen Rider.

So, yeah, I liked how this firefighter thing ended! It’s all deeply affecting hero moments, for about eight minutes straight. And, like, firefighter story! That’s a genre that can ladle out hero moments from sunrise to sunset without it ever feeling forced. All of the 119 stuff was beautiful, and I don’t mind saying it. It’s nothing too revelatory – we’ve seen any number of heroic and dedicated Humagears by now – but the execution is a goddamn bullseye. That shot of 119’s burning face as he yells at Homura to go save the Hiden employees! Aruto carrying out 119’s body on his back, because his employee did a good job today! (I am tearing up just typing that out; goddamn bullseye.) Homura saluting Aruto to honor 119’s dedication to saving lives! Just… man, what a thrilling first half of this episode.

(I can’t decide if Fuwa and Yua charging into the burning building is hilarious, or stupid, or both. When Fuwa douses himself with a bucket of water, grabs Yua by the hand, and races into the building to possibly literally fight a fire, I was like HELL YES. They’re both Kamen Riders! They can use their superpowers to safely rescue the trapped civilians! But then they… don’t do that? They just go into a burning building in winter coats and work clothes? At which point even the formerly terrified firefighter is calling Fuwa a dumbass? It starts off as such a great idea, until it looks like Yua forgetting she can Henshin becomes a disease that’s transmitted through contact to Fuwa. Weird subplot!)

The second half, though? It was okay.

I mean, it’s another A+ Jin fight scene, and that’s always welcome, but a lot of the rest of it was just some plot reveals. Things that’re necessary to know (finally established that ZAIA has been manufacturing the Raidrisers), while still sort of being unceremoniously dumped on the audience. Like, the Raidriser thing just happens in an alleyway? It’s fun to hear Gai’s defense of arming humans to start a Humagear genocide, which is a neat inversion of MetsubouJinrai’s M.O., but it feels less like a hard-fought discovery and more like a timer went off and everyone was allowed to talk about it.

(On that topic, I wish the show would just say Yua was Gai’s daughter or whatever they’ve got up their sleeve. I wish they’d’ve done it ten episodes ago.)

That first half was so good, though!

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KAMEN RIDER ZERO-ONE SO-DO AI 08: HUMAGEAR



In honor of 119’s excellent effort at work today, let’s take a look at the Humagear SO-DO!

It’s a one-box figure, because of course it is. Beyond just being a troop-builder, what in the hell would a second box add to a Humagear? What you get here is a figure, an extra set of hands, and a ton of stickers. You actually get the option of stickering up the head as Docile or Deranged, and I went with Docile. (There’s a Trilobite figure we’ll be talking about in a little bit, as well as a Fuwa’s Nightmare model of Humagear, and I thought they both covered the Evil side of things well enough.) The rest of the stickers are needed to fill out the incredibly blank figure, and they do a solid job. The ones for the eyes are infuriating, because they’ve got to curve around the side of the head and cover a sliver of the eye… but pressing down on them causes the stickers to move out of position. You need to use two points of pressure on these stickers to keep them from sliding around, and it sucks.

I like the general Humagear design. AkibaSilver already traced the genealogy of Hiden’s various human-looking robots, so we’ve got the basics of the suits well covered. I honestly don’t have any points to make about the Humagear suit; I think it looks neat? It’s a mook suit, and those are designed to be sort of nondescript and unobtrusive, so I’m not sure there’s much to be said about what they communicate or how they push forward on the themes of Zero-One. If you’ve got a read, I’d love to hear it!